Bark!
by KyokoDreamer
Summary: Sydney, Australia; June 11th 2013; 7:53PM - Arthur is a dog with a long story, and the animals in the shelter, well, they've got the time to hear one. Love, laughter, loss, fear, and baking Australian heat, in a story of true romance and family, as experienced by a canine. DOG AU; USUK; other pairings. (Give me a chance to erase all your memories of the awful summary?)
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everybody! So, a new story now, and we're moving onto these more peculiar/supernatural stories I promised! However, I think we all know that the story you should be reading is a new chapter of Peter, so to all you followers out there, I'm so sorry. T^T But, Summer is upon us in sunny England, so I will try to get one up soon - maybe in time for my birthday this Friday? Meh, we'll see. ;3 There is actually a reason this is going up today, and why my forward is so long. Today is my friend Alfie's birthday, and he will actually be providing the cover art for this story, which is awesome because he's an incredible artist! **

**So this one's for you, gorgeous! You're amazing, and I love ya! **

**Hope you're all doing well! PleasAnd I'm sorry to keep giving you all such long dedications.. ^^" Please read and review if you have the time! Love Lucy xxx**

**Chapter 1 - My Life**

_Sydney, Australia_

_June 11__th__ 2013_

A familiar noise clattered through the room - the sound of a carrier hitting a countertop. The sound of a new arrival.

Every head lifted, every neck craned, every ear pricked, everybody paid attention. Perhaps it was because spending days on end in a cage afforded you very little to do, except watch and wait, expectant for whoever would enter next.

Of the two rows of cages lining the walls, only three cells were vacant. In this room, the shelves were three cages high, and five wide, meaning that at least fifteen animals could be held within, with the very bottom ones reserved for the larger dogs who lounged lazily, mostly asleep. One empty cell was for a big dog, and this was the one that the veterinarian was eyeing, and the size of the carrier she'd brought in suggested that this would be a good fit. Several cats sighed gloomily, and two larger dogs chuckled sympathetically - the felines were not fans of the midnight howling sessions they deemed necessary.

The newcomer was silent and nobody had yet seen them. A terrier moved forward to the bars of his enclosure and squinted at the carrier, hoping to catch a glimpse of a tail or an ear, anything to identify just what they'd be dealing with.

"I can't see anything…" he reported.

"It's male." a German Shepherd in one of the lower cages spoke up. "I can smell that much."

"Delightful." A cat added sarcastically, to which he was hushed immediately.

The volunteer laughed, and trotted over to the cages. "We're all very noisy today, aren't we lovelies? Shh, now. I have a new friend for you all." She walked back over to her carrier, unlatching the door.

A white, slightly damp paw emerged, and then a whole leg and a pointed muzzle. The dog stepped shakily out and padded forwards unsteadily. It was a cross-breed of some sort, or at least appeared to be, but was despite this a very beautiful specimen. Some of the animals began to question the German Shepherd's dissertation, but on closer rear examination, they discovered he was correct.

The woman led him to, as suspected, a bottom level cage, opening its door. The dog stood behind her still, stretching its legs and yawning a little.

"Aww, I know." she said, "But don't worry, you'll be out again soon for a nice run around!" She stroked him lovingly under the chin and around the ears, "It's a bit late, so you'll have to sleep here tonight. This is all just temporary, so we can keep an eye on you."

Humans habits of talking to them, even though they couldn't understand their response, never ceased to amaze the animals. Honestly, why bother? It didn't get anyone anywhere. They could understand you, sure, but a conversation was hardly likely to develop, now was it?

Seemingly content with the gained flexibility of his haunches, the new dog went obediently into the open cage and sat down. The volunteer smiled and shut the cage, before quickly checking the status of all the other occupants, and walking out. If they all stayed quiet and no drama occurred, the next person to enter that room would be the night watch. They were finally alone.

The new dog remained silent and, such was their way, the terrier decided to address this.

"Hey…" he whispered.

Only silence greeted him.

"Hello?" tried another dog.

There was motion in a cat's cage on the highest level. "Yo? Dog?"

Still nothing.

Suddenly from the middle level, there came a small noise. A tiny kitten had made its way forward, its paws making a little smattering noise as they hit the cage bars. "Um… Mr Dog? Are you alright?"

This evoked a reaction. The dog snorted derisively, "You lot sure make a bloody racket, don't you? I can tell I'm going to like it here…"

The kitten laughed, but its mother's head appeared, gently dragging it by the scruff back to her milk-filled belly.

"In any case," the dog continued, "I am quite fine." There was another pause. "Thank you."

A female spaniel in the cage opposite him grinned - perhaps this dog wasn't quite as bad as his first words had suggested. "You got a name, hot shot?" she asked.

"Arthur. Arthur Jones, actually." he replied.

"A dog with a last name?" chuckled the spaniel. "I never heard of nothing like that before."

"Ridiculous!" another dog chimed.

"Quite, quite. I… I used to think exactly the same thing."

"What made you change your mind?" the spaniel questioned.

He considered this. "Well… That's rather a long story."

"We got the time."

"Well, I don't." A voice sounded. Arthur looked up to see the mother of the kitten that first spoke glaring down at him. "I have a litter here that ought to really get some sleep."

"Fair enough." He nodded to her respectfully; he knew better than to undermine a new mother.

"Oh come on, Vix!" A male cat in the cage next to her called.

The mother cat sighed - not unhappy, merely displeased, and at the end of her patience. "Don't undermine me in front of the kids, Badger. If you behave like that then they'll never respect their mother."

"But mama, I'm not sleepy!" One kitten chirped, soon setting off the chorus of disclaimers. "Neither am I!", "Me too!", "I couldn't possibly sleep!"

She groaned. "This is all your fault."

The male cat laughed, rubbing his cheeks against the adjacent wall of their cages, as though she could feel him through it. She did the same, and Arthur felt suddenly quite sad, where before he had simply been tired. The mother settled back down and closed her eyes peacefully, a few kittens settling into the gap. Those remaining pressed their faces against the wire, ready to hear his story.

"Well. I'm not stopping you." She addressed him. "You may tell your story if you so wish." She craned her head as though to look through the cage wall to where the male cat was. "Badge, they are officially your responsibility tonight. I intend to sleep right through." He merely laughed in response, and Arthur was reminded of his own little domestic conversations all that time ago. His face must have shown this because the bitch opposite him now wore a quizzical expression.

"I feel like there's going to be something to this story." A bulldog projected, met only with sighs or a laugh. The spaniel opposite Arthur rolled her eyes.

"There goes Barney with his fortune telling again…"

"I mean it." the dog protested, "This one's worth staying up for."

Arthur snickered, not unkindly, just amusedly, more at himself than anyone else. "Well, I don't know about that, but I think it's… Interesting, at least."

"Well, go on then!" the terrier shouted, "I want to at least hear the beginning before I go to sleep!"

"Alright, alright… Ohhh, I'm not sure how to start." Arthur scratched behind one ear, mulling it over in his mind.

One of the kittens mewled quietly to him, "However you feel."

Another spoke to him, "Mama says to make sure you make sense to yourself, or you can never hope to make sense to other people. That's what Mama says."

"Well, that's one hell of a mother you've got there."

The male cat, Badger he believed was its name, nodded to him proudly.

"So…" said the German Shepherd, "How do you want to start?"

He thought for a moment, but decided to simply launch into it. He sat up now, moving forward to the front of the cage. "I have never met a truly good human being." he started, "I am not even sure if one does exist. In my eighth year of life I met a child who came close, but in the end she grew like the others after all…"


	2. Chapter 2

**Ooh, two updates in one day! If only all of my stories could be like this... ^^" **

**I hope you're all well! Please read and review if you have the time! Love Lucy xxx**

Chapter 2 - My Mother

"I knew my mother for little more than two months. She was a magnificent bitch, everybody thought so. Her coat was beautiful, and her back was arched and broad, and her eyes sparkled with more intelligence than a human could ever hope to possess. I looked more like her than any of my siblings, and that was a constant source of pride to me. We had the same long white fur with orange patches on our ears and feet, and I had even inherited her rare green eyes, uncommon in dogs of our kind. I had two brothers in that litter, and we didn't look a thing alike really. They both took after our father, with a sandier coat and very little orange, and thick brows obscuring dark eyes. I looked a lot more like my four sisters, to the point where my brothers would tease me, and suggest that I was a girl too and should run along and play with them instead.

I loved my family deeply, and the worst days of my life were the days when one by one they were taken from me. We began to dread the doorbell, when our human would walk past us and open the door to more smiling people who'd swoop in like an eagle or a falcon and snatch one of my siblings up and away, and we would never see them again. When my mother tried to stop them, she'd be swatted away, and the human would scold her: 'Edie! Down!'

Maggie went first, and then Louie, and Jenny, and Betty. My sister Marie would whine and cry at night, and Warren and I would try and surround her tightly, make her feel safe for as long as we could. My mother would simply isolate herself, and sit under the coffee table with her head sticking out one side, completely silent and dejected. Our human pretended that it could not see what it was doing to her, feigning innocence all the time, scratching her head, and picking us up and playing with us as though nothing had changed. We were the last three, and we were terrified.

Another human came to the door one day, and we made ourselves scarce. We clamoured at our mother to run with us, we could find the others and escape, but she just shook her head and sighed, and dragged us unwillingly by our scruffs into the room again. She had resigned herself to the situation it seemed, but we wouldn't give up. We barked, as menacingly as we possibly could, and jumped, scratching at legs and furniture. The new human beamed down at us, and picked up Marie instantly, cooing at her and fluffing up her fur as my sister tried to bat her away for all she was worth. A male followed in the other human, and immediately took Warren from where he barked next to me.

'This one's a little scrapper! Why you barking, mate? Huh?' He ruffled my brother's ears. 'Aw, what a good boy.'

'Oh, these are just adorable, Lynn.' the woman spoke now, 'Is Edie doing alright?'

I growled at the mention of my mother's name, and Marie twisted her head back to look at me desperately.

'She's alright. She's been awful tired lately, but I suppose childbirth does take it out of you somewhat!' The humans laughed and I continued growling. How dare they make fun of my mother?

And then a different voice spoke - one that wasn't our human, our the newcomers, or our mother.

'Stop that growling, boy. You're giving me a headache.'

A big black dog came padding in and walked almost immediately to my mother. 'You alright, Edie?'

She looked up at him, and for the first time in days she smiled. 'Mm. I'll be fine.'

This dog was not our father, he looked nothing like him in fact, and we were surprised to see his words have such an effect on our mother. He had even managed to silence us, and I quickly snapped out of it, barking again for all I was worth.

'Your 'Mini Me' sure is loud, isn't he?' the dog said.

My mother looked at me affectionately. 'I think he's just scared. We all are.' Her head dropped onto the carpet again and she sighed.

The dog put a paw on her back and lowered his head next to hers comfortingly. 'Don't be, Edie. I made sure the humans brought me today, I have word on your pups.'

Her green eyes opened widely, and he leant in conspiratorially, whispering things to her that we couldn't have made out even if we hadn't all been barking so loudly. The humans were making some sort of inane chit-chat with one another, and still hadn't put down Warren and Marie. My mother sat up suddenly and began licking the black dog all over his huge head. He shook his ears and patted her gently and she backed down, apologising, still wearing an unfathomable grin.

We were able to hear his next words: 'Now, for the rest of these, Meg and John are looking for two, and by the looks of it, they've got 'em.'

'But what about Arthur?' My mother protested.

'Don't fret, Edie. I heard-' But I could not hear the rest of what he said. The humans were talking again, louder now, and my brother had begun barking once more, far angrier than before.

'Come on, puppies!' The woman, Meg, squealed, snuggling Marie against her cheek as her husband stopped Warren from wriggling away with a strong forearm. 'Thank you so much, Lynn, all the best!'

'Oh, Meg? Do you not want the last one?'

'Ohh! I'd love to, he's such a cutie… But I really shouldn't.'

'Yeah, I don't know that we've got the room left for another, Lynn… Do let us know if you don't find him a place though, yeah?'

'Of course, John.'

They turned and headed for the front door again and I yelped, no desire to see my last two siblings leave me. They called back to me desperately and my mother looked at me sadly.

The big black dog approached me now. 'Don't worry kid, I'll look after these. And you'll see them at the park in no time, I promise.'

He patted my shoulder, stopping my noise, and turned to follow the humans out.

'Duke!' my mother called, and he turned around. 'Thank you.'

'Anything for you, Edie.'

She smiled again at this, but it was a lonely smile - those that are just a faint curl of the lip, suggesting more sadness and regret that could ever be expressed.

I have to admit, I don't remember much of what happened after that. The next thing I really remember was going to see my father, and the night we planned my escape."


	3. Chapter 3

**Final update for today! Hope you're all doing well! Please read and review if you have the time. Love Lucy xxx**

Chapter 3 - My Father, and My Escape

"I believe I already said that my father and I looked nothing alike. Well, this was not quite true. In fact, I would grow to have a similar stature to him - tall and lean, but without the somewhat muscular frame he had - but the overriding similarity between us was a feature you've probably already noticed on myself. My father had ridiculously thick brows that looked as though they could have been at least several brows thick, and sadly this was the only real trait I inherited from him. Despite this, he was a handsome dog, just as my mother was beautiful, and this was really the only part of their relationship that made any sense - they were equally attractive.

Where my mother was sensible and level-headed, albeit a little melodramatic sometimes, my father was reckless and wild. I suppose that the phrase 'opposites attract' really applied to them, because they didn't seem to have anything in common. My brother Warren would one day say to me that it was simply because my father lived next door but I disagree with him entirely. Perhaps it was the romantic in me clouding my vision but I think it was mostly what I observed in my last days of living at 21 Spring Street, Chatswood.

Following my final siblings' departure and my mother's downright dismissal of me, I sought comfort in my father, and to give him his dues, he always came when one of us cried. I loped meekly out of the back door and into the garden where I slumped onto the lawn and whined at the adjoining fence.

The back garden is the clearest part of my memories of that house. It was quite large, a lot of gardens in that area are, and for a young dog like myself, it was bliss. All that open space, and a neatly trimmed lawn, bushes that afforded a small puppy a hiding place his brothers and sisters wouldn't find in hide-and-go-seek, and a refuge from the hot Australian sun at its centre, in the form a large tree that cast a shadow onto the grass below. To the left lived an elderly couple that I scarcely saw, unless they stepped out onto their patio where they would send great billows of smoke out across our garden with their endless barbeques, and then to the right lived my father.

The garden was clear that night in that I could see the ground before my paws, and I could see my father bounding out of the glass doors that separated him from his yard, and skidding towards me. 'Arthur, are you alright, mate?' He was concerned, I could tell.

I simply whined again in response, grinding my chin into the dirt. He lifted an eyebrow, still just as worried but a little more confused. My father was intelligent, I remember that, but he was one of those dogs that just could not read atmosphere or expression - emotion had to be spelled out, or in his mind it clearly wasn't felt.

'They're gone, dad.' I clarified, 'Warren and Marie and not me.'

He shook his head. 'Well, I'll be.' he exhaled, 'I'm sorry, buddy.' He rested his paws on the low fence, standing on his hind legs for a better view of me.

I have to admit, I'd been expecting a little more than that reaction. All my siblings had been taken from me, and I was all alone. This was the end of everything, the end of my whole world. At that age, it hadn't occurred to me that this was probably exactly what had happened to both of my parents. I must have just assumed that they were the only pups in their litter, or that my mother was just incredibly fertile, or something. More likely though, I hadn't thought at all. Every dog, or cat I suppose for that matter, or…" Arthur looked around, spotting a reptile cowering in its shell in another cage, "Tortoise, or everybody in this room, no matter what you are, it's the same. That friends, is the biggest difference between us and _them_. Humans, I mean. With age, we become more self-less, more aware. With them, it's quite the opposite. They start becoming more selfish, and they stop caring. Then they reprimand the younger ones for caring so much, completely devoid of reasoning enough to understand that their children are not weak, they are just feeling."

Badger breathed out in disbelief. "That's quite the grudge you bear, Arthur. They ain't all that bad."

Arthur smiled sadly, "My friend, you have no idea, then. Aren't you the lucky one?"

He shrugged, and the spaniel cleared her throat. "So, Mr 'Jones'," She inflected it somewhat mockingly still, "You were saying?"

"Ah, yes. My father…

Well, I suppose he pitied me. I've said that he was a rash dog, a dog that thought very little of consequences, and that was evident in his next proposal.

'Arthur, Edie- sorry, your mum- well, she was saying how upset you all were at… The humans coming for you.' He was trying very hard to phrase a point that he himself wasn't too clear on.

I snorted at him incredulously, 'Of course I am, dad! I'm never going to see them again!' It was then that the true realisation hit me, and I set off on another crying jag.

'Yeah,' That probably wasn't the thing he should of led with, as I cried all over again, 'But what I meant was do you mind… Changing humans? Like, getting a new one. One that isn't Lynn.'

My head snapped up furiously, 'I don't want one at all! I don't want any of them!' I shouted fiercely, 'They don't care about any of us dogs at all! Not one bit! I- I hate humans!'

He appeared somewhat taken aback, I'll admit. It was the first time I'd ever said anything remotely concerning emotion as strong as hatred. I would come to say that sentence quite a lot in years to come.

'Well…" He grew silent again, before looking around and whispering, 'There is an alternative. But your mum won't like it one bit…'

I leapt up at him desperately, forgetting all loyalties to my mother, 'What is it, dad?! Will I be able to see the others again?!'

'Well, probably not, son.' He was honest, at least. 'But you won't have to deal with humans anymore.' He must have considered it before himself, because he really sold the deal. 'No call to answer, no instructions to obey. It is harder though, food is scarcer, shelter infrequent, but you have freedom. An open field, a clear blue sky, a life and a will of your own.'

Thankfully there's another thing you lose after childhood - that five-second attention span."

A few chuckles broke out in the room from agreeing adults, Vixen especially, looking down at her offspring, some of which had already lost interest in Arthur's story, settling down to sleep or running their claws through each other's tail fur like tiny combs.

"His idea intrigued me, and in the space of not even a minute, I had forgotten all about my brothers and sisters and my mother. I had forgotten how hard things would be for a pup all alone out there.

I was practically screaming, 'I want that, dad! What do I need to do?!'

He looked me in the eyes, his big brown ones meeting mine so seriously. 'You need to run away. And I'm going to help you. But for the love of everything boy, don't tell your mother.'"


End file.
